Chapter 7

Not Again

"Oh my God," Bambi said, when she could speak, "We actually. . . actually escaped?"

"Mmmhm," Ice mumbled, still trying to take it in.

"We escaped!" Coco said, then a bit louder, until she was shouting, "WE ESCAPED!"

Everyone in the truck cheered.

"I can't believe it!" Gem hugged Squid, then pulled away quickly, blushing. The others stared at them knowingly.

"What?" Gem asked, bright red.

"Nothin'. . ." Inferno muttered, sneaking a look at X-Ray in the front, "Just watching you two fall in love."

"Well, we are gonna need some serious disguises," Ice broke the awkward silence that followed Inferno's comment.

"Yeah. We should go shopping!" Apple squealed. Inferno rolled her eyes.

"We'll need new clothes, hairstyles. . ." Coco said thoughtfully.

"Not a huge price to pay," Ice said, "I could go for bangs!"

"And I always thought about going brown," Apple said, "What about you Gem?"

"Huh?" Gem had been daydreaming, "Oh, uh, I guess I could cut my hair short?"

"Yeah!" Apple grinned, "Me too! That'll look so different!"

"Well, I don't want to change too much," Shark said, "I just want to change my clothing style."

"I'm going punk!" Coco said quickly, "Before someone else suggests it."

"Oh, please let me too!" Wiggles said, "I want streaks! Ones that match my outfit."

"Looks like I'm gonna have to get rid of mine," Bambi sighed, "Oh well. I can get some major curls!"

"Let's not get too excited," Mint said from the front of the truck, which she was now driving, "We have at least two hours until the first town," Everyone groaned.

"Cheer up. It's worth the wait, I mean, you get to see Inferno go girly!"

Inferno sat up, "Wait, WHAT?"

"Please, Inferno," Ice pleaded, "We need to be disguised."

"Nuh-uh. No. No way. Never. I am not gonna look like a pansy!"

"It's just a dress. And brown hair. Not a big deal."

"A DRESS? NOOOOO!"

"Please!" Gem begged.

"Gah! You people make me sick!" Inferno buried her head in her arms, much to the amusement of the others.

Zero leaned over to whisper in Stanley's ear, "Girls are weird."

Stanley grinned, "Tell me about it!"

xxxxx

The morning sun rose up in the sky. Gem groaned and rolled over onto her back.

"Is it really morning?" she mumbled, and sat up. Turning her body round, she discovered a number of things. One, nobody else was awake. Two, her watch said it was 8:41. Three, she had been asleep on Squid. She scowled, hoping he didn't know. And then she noticed another thing. They were in the middle of a forest, and she could hear someone talking.

"Yes? Yes, I know where they are. No, I've found them. No, it's okay. Yes. Pink out," there was a crackle of feedback and then. . . silence.

Gem frowned, but then had an idea. She rooted around in the back of the truck to find what she was looking for: binoculars. She picked them up, and looked through them in the direction of the talking.

Nothing. Then. . . pink. Then nothing again. Then yellow. Then nothing.

But as Gem was looking at whatever had been talking, a red-headed woman in a black bat-wing top, black skinny jeans and black boots sneaked up behind the car.

"Alright," she whispered to herself, so quiet that Gem couldn't hear her, "Eagle will be pleased. All of them, in one car! Just think of what promotions I- I mean, we'll get," she pulled her phone from her pocket, typed something and put it away again. Then, she took out a notepad and pen and noted down the license plate number. Finally, she took something small out of her other pocket and kissed it, before sticking it on the back of the car and running off into the woods once again.

Meanwhile, Gem was having no luck with the binoculars, so she gave up as the others began to wake up.

"Hey, Gem," Ice said sleepily, "What time is it?"

"Almost nine," Gem answered.

"Really? We slept in late," Ice chuckled.

"Tell me about it."

xxxxx

An hour later, they were all awake and dressed: Ice in an icy blue scoop-neck top, ice blue converse and grey jeans, Gem in a floaty purple tank top, violet converse and white shorts. Coco wore a halter neck turquoise top, a black skirt, black cardigan and lacy converse trainers. Wiggles bounded out of the forest, where she'd been changing, in a Soft Kitty top, a denim vest three-quarter length jeans and pink trainers, followed closely by Shark, in a stripy t-shirt, denim shorts and blue spotty bow pumps.

"It's such a nice morning," sighed Bambi, sitting contentedly by Ace wearing a baggy red and white top, ripped blue skinny jeans and red trainers.

"Definitely," Ace grinned at her, as Apple ran out of the woods in front of them, wearing a white t-shirt with an apple on it, a green cardigan, a white skirt and mint green ballet pumps.

"Hey, guys, has anyone seen Inferno?" Mint asked, pulling her white 'Love&Hate' t-shirt, which she wore over black shorts, a black sleeveless cardigan and black canvas trainers.

"No, I haven't seen her for at least half an hour," Wiggles, Inferno's best friend, said.

"That's worrying," Zig-Zag commented, "I mean, wouldn't someone have seen her."

"I'll go look," Shark said.

She ran out into the woods and came back a few minutes later.

"!" Shark yelled.

"Woah, Shark, you actually found Inferno?" X-Ray asked.

"Yup. She's just coming. She was. . . taking a wazz."

"Ohhh. . ."

Just then, Inferno burst out of the woods in short black leggings, A black t-shirt with the words 'Zombie Kill Zone' on it and grey converse.

"You were looking for me?" she asked.

"Yeah, we got worried when we couldn't find you," Coco answered.

"So sweet," Inferno muttered, before leaning on the side of the car.

"Hey, Inferno?" Wiggles asked, "Where did you go pee?"

"Wiggles!" Apple scrunched her face up in disgust.

"What? I just wanna know!" Wiggles turned back to Inferno, "Soooo, did you find some portable toilet or something."

"Nope," Inferno answered with a grin, "Peed in a bush."

"EEW!" Ice, Gem, Coco and Apple chorused.

"Gross," Wiggles muttered, before darting into the forest.

"That girl has the bladder of a squirrel," Squid commented. They all laughed.

Suddenly, they heard a loud scream. . .